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Wednesday, 4 June 2014

Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake

After baking a batch of Oreo Cream Cheese Buns, I was left with half a block of cream cheese. Not knowing what to do with the leftovers, I tried googling for a suitable recipe to use it. I searched using the keywords "125g cream cheese", nothing interesting or suitable came up. I then tried googling in Chinese, "125g 奶油芝士" and this recipe popped right up.

The blog post with the title "125g的奶油芝士也能做出香浓的日式轻芝士蛋糕" caught my attention immediately. This is exactly what I am looking for...to use only 125g cream cheese to make a Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake!

I didn't have much luck with Japanese style cotton soft cheesecake on my previous attempt, once out of the oven, it sank, shrank and developed a 'waist' despite leaving the cake to cool in the oven before unmoudling. However, after my successful attempt at making the 3 ingredients Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake, my confidence level went up :)

I adapted the original recipe a little just to round off the ingredients amount. I baked the cake at 150degC for 60mins. The cake rose nicely and the top was baked to a beautiful golden hue without me having to adjust the temperature or to tent the top with foil. The cake was able to hold the structure so well probably because of the number of egg whites used and the relatively higher amount of flour. This is the first time I baked something using 5 whole eggs, I was actually a little overwhelmed with the shear amount of egg whites that was being whipped up!

Instead of leaving the cake to cool in the oven, I removed it immediately once the baking time was up. Once out of the oven, I dropped the cake pan at a height onto my kitchen counter top (I used a cork mat to protect the counter top). I read that this action helps to get rid of the hot air inside the cake quickly so that the cake will not sink or shrink too much (this also applies to chiffon cakes and bread loaves). I removed the cake from the pan right after as I didn't want it to cool off inside the pan. For me, it is best to remove the cake from the pan while it is still hot, as upon cooling, the top of the cake (the papery thin golden crust) will stick to anything that comes into contact, be it my fingers or a plate. The cake pan and the cake itself was very hot, making it a little tricky to unmold especially I had used a cake pan with a fixed base. I had to invert the cake twice so that I could remove the baking paper on the sides and bottom, before leaving it to cool right side up on the cooling rack. It would be easier if I were to use a pan with a removable base. However, as the cake is baked using the water bath method, even if the pan is wrapped with foil, somehow water condensation may still occur, leaving the bottom of the cake dense and wet.

This cake is a lighter version of the usual Japanese soufflé cheesecake, the texture was soft and moist, something we could eat one slice after another without having to feel too guilty. Do give this a try if you ever run out of idea what to do with half a block of cream cheese. I feel that this is quite a fool proof recipe especially so if you are good in making chiffon cakes but no luck with Japanese soufflé cheesecake.

Line the base and sides of a 8" round cake pan(fixed base) with parchment paper. For the sides, make sure the parchment paper extends higher than the cake pan by about 1.5 inches as the cake will expand and rise above the rim of the pan, set aside.

Sieve together cake flour and corn flour, set aside.

Place cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Set the mixing bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the mixing bowl is bigger than the sauce pan). Let the mixture melts and stir till smooth. (Note: not to worry if the butter and cheese mixture appears curdled/separated, after the egg yolks are added in it will turn smooth). Remove from heat and leave to cool.

When ready, add the egg yolks to the cream cheese and butter mixture, one at a time, and with a balloon whisk, whisk to combine.

Add milk, whisk to combine. Add lemon juice, whisk to combine.

Sieve over the flour mixture, whisk to combine. Small lumps may form once the flour is added, whisk the batter gently till there are no lumps, do not over mix.

In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites and lemon juice with an electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add half of the sugar and turn to medium-high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar mixture in separate additions and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. Turn to low speed and beat for another 1 to 2 mins (this helps to stabilise the air bubbles).

Add the beaten egg whites to the cream cheese mixture in 3 separate additions, each time fold with a rubber spatula (I prefer to use a balloon whisk) until just blended.

Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

Place cake pan in a baking tray. Fill the baking tray with hot water (the water should rise up to about 1 inch of the cake pan).

Place on lower rack of the oven and bake at 150 degC for 60 mins.

Remove cake pan from oven and immediately drop the pan at a height of 20~30cm onto the table top. This helps to prevent the cake from shrinking upon cooling. Unmould the cake immediately. To unmold, place a large plate or baking sheet on top of the cake pan, invert the cake pan onto the plate/baking sheet. Remove the cake pan and the parchment paper on the base and sides of the cake (Note: do use oven mitten as the cake pan will be very hot). Next, place a cooling rack on the base of the cake, invert the cake right side up onto the cooling rack and leave to cool completely. Leave the cake to chill in the fridge for about 2 to 3 hours, best overnight, before serving.

Beautifully baked and the texture is so fine! I would like to try your method of removing the cake immediately from the oven and dropping the pan from a height. I am quite accident prone when baking and hope that it goes well hah..hah...

Nice and explained post...Every country has different cooking style. In Asia, China has totally different cooking style I think chef ability to be good at a range of course, Have extensive experience of specialty diets and food preparation.

Hi Julia, yes place the cake together with the baking tray filled with hot water into the oven. This is known as the water bath method which helps to keep the moisture in the oven high and heat gentle so that the cake will not expand too quickly which may cause it to crack during baking.

Hi Kimmy, I do not own a springform pan so I am not sure whether water will seep thru or whether water may condense inside the wrapped pan. As per the original recipe, may be u can place a small rack nside the water bath and place your spring form pan on the rack so that water doesn't come in contact with the base of the pan. This way you need not wrap the pan or worry about condensation. The finished batter is quite a lot, if your springform is shallow u may pour the extra batter in muffin paper cups (do not need to use water bath) and bake together. Hope this helps.Jeannie of Baking Diary has tried this recipe and her green tea version looks so good :)

I think may be your oven temperature is too high, the cake expanded too fast causing it to crack/explode ;) Hope you have better luck with this recipe, looking forward to hearing good news from you! have fun!

This is the 3rd recipe I have tried and finally it's successful! Cake didn't collapse like it did on my past 2 attempts and yes, this is a lighter version and easy on the palate. In fact, a little too light, according to my family's preference :p. Just wondering, if I were to add more cheese to the recipe, what else do I need to change, any idea? Also, my cake doesn't seem to brown properly after an hour (it was still quite pale on top) but I didn't want to leave it in the oven any longer than I should (I used a skewer to test that it was baked) so I took it out. Thanks for sharing this recipe HHB. At least I know I'm not a jinx when baking cheesecakes :). Jan

It's great to hear that this recipe works well for you :)I do not know how to tweak the recipe...maybe you can try other recipes that uses more cream cheese. Did you bake at the lowest rack? Maybe you can try bake at a higher rack position so that the top is closer to the heating coil. Hope this helps.

Hope you will be able to assist my queries as follows:1) Am i able to use a tin with removable base? 2) If i don't have cake flour, can i replace with top flour? 3) If i bake in cupcake liners or muffins liners, how long do i have to bake? Say 20-25 mins?

1) You may use a pan with removable base, u can place a small rack inside the water bath and place your pan on the rack so that water doesn't come in contact with the base of the pan. Or you can put in inside another fixed base pan, see this video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68htVeDaYh4

2) You can use top flour.

3) It may take longer than 20-25mins. I guess it will take anytime between 30-35mins. You will have to keep a close watch. As my 8" fixed pan was a little too shallow, I had some left over batter which I baked in paper muffin cups, I only removed them from the oven together with the cake as I didnt want to risk opening the oven halfway. Those baked in the paper cups were just nice, not over baked. Hope this helps.

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Hi Michelle, it could be due to the beating of the egg whites, did you beat till the correct stage? Or you could have deflated the whites while folding, how was the finished batter? Was it thick or thin and runny?

Hi HHB, i am quite sure i beat the egg white till soft peak. I would say the finished batter is thick and runny. I did make cotton cheesecake before and so far alright, so i think folding of egg white should be fine too. Could it be due to the sudden drop of temperature?

Hi Michelle, pardon my lack of knowledge and experience, since you have prepared the batter correctly, I am not sure what went wrong. If the cheese batter was smooth after adding the egg yolks, it shouldn't cause any problem. As for the issue of sudden drop in temperature, by right, the act of dropping the pan immediately to release the hot trapped air should prevent the cake from sinking.

I didn't have problem melting the cream cheese and butter, the mixture didn't curdle...did you cut the cream cheese and butter into cubes so that both melt easily? or you can try bring the cream cheese to room temperature before melting.

Hi! I tried the recipe but only the top half of the cake was nice and fluffy! The bottom half was really dense and awful. Was it because I over-did the beating or maybe poured too much into the pan? (I used all the batter for an 8 inch pan as suggested.) It tasted great though:) (I sliced the cake horizontally and threw the bottom away...)

It could be due to folding of the whites to the cheese & yolk mixture, the mixture was not well blended, as such the denser unmixed cheese mixture settled at the bottom causing the dense layer. the other reason could be the cake was underbaked due to uneven heating/temperature in your oven. Did you use an oven thermometer to make sure the oven is pre heated to the right temperature? Did you place the pan too high (the top received heat but not the bottom)? Did you use hot water in the water bath?

Much thanks! I think it might have been underbaked - I probably opened the oven for too long while trying to put it in and all the preheated heat all escaped. And I used half hot water and half room temperature (because that was the max my kettle could hold). I put it on the second lowest rack (4 altogether). Will give it another try:) maybe in muffins cups next time. They really tasted great!

Hello HHB,This looks good :) My last and only attempt at making Japanese style cheesecake was 2years ago and it was a total failure :p I have not gathered enough courage to try again, maybe should do that soon :)

1) You may want to refer to the slides under point 7 on this site (http://www.decodingdelicious.com/egg-foams/) which gives a very detailed explanation on beating egg whites to the correct stage. I do not own a KA mixer as such I am not able to advise on how many mins. Usually a stand mixer will take just a few mins to beat egg whites. You can also google for video demo on how to beat egg whites.

2) You need to pre heat your oven to the temperature required before putting in the cake otherwise, you could have baked the cake at a temperature much lower and probably starting from zero C! Do use an oven thermometer to check as every oven works different. My oven usually takes 15mins to preheat to the required temperature.

I believe your cake failed because it was baked in a much lower temperature, resulting in the dense bottom layer. It could also be incorrect folding of the egg whites to the cheese mixture.Hope this helps.

I have been making this cheese cake for the last three days. Just love it. The third attempt was partially done by my son. Thank you and I will continue to learn from ur recipes next time. Your recipes r just great sharing.

You could have deflated the batter when you fold the beaten whites to the cream cheese mixture, as a result the cake didnt rise much. You may want to google for videos on how to beat the egg whites and also how to fold the whites to the yolk or cream cheese batter.

The top burnt but bottom uncooked...likely due to uneven heating of your oven. Make sure you preheat your oven to the right temperature, do u use an oven thermometer? It usually takes about 15 to 20mins to preheat the oven. You may also try bake at a lower rack so that the top of the cake is further away from the top heating coils of your oven. Hope this helps.

Hihi. I've tried last Friday and it's good except my top cracked and can see big ubbled on cake. Able to advise as I'm baking with steam bake on 130 deg c 40mins, 110 deg c 15mins n 120 deg c last 5 mins. Mine is small oven cornell brand. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon.

Hi, yes melt the cream cheese and butter over a double boiler. I do not have a picture of the melted cream cheese but you may want to refer to this blogger's post: http://redblackapron.tumblr.com/post/19097929158/my-first-attempt-at-japanese-cheesecake

hi, I used your recipe and finally managed to bake this cheesecake 99% succesffully! I failed twice previously using another recipe. however, the bottom of the cake did not rise well, like some people said, resembled pudding. can it be because the hot water for the steam bath was too hot?

Hi cy, glad to hear that your cake turned out well. I think the pudding layer was likely due to improper folding/blending of the egg whites to the cheese mixture. The denser cheese mixture that was at the bottom of your mixing bowl was not well blended to the beatened egg whites, as a result, when poured into the baking pan it sank to the bottom to form the pudding layer. Hope this helps.

Hi, I hv tried bake the cake today. It rise high n look fine, I did the dropping on table top too aft taking out from oven. But while waiting the cake to cool down, it started to shrink. And now it look like a "mushroom ". T.T what has goes wrong? Can I check with you, your 150 degree is preheat temperature or baking temperature??

Hi HHB, i don't have a fixed base 8in round pan, would you recommend I use a 8x8in square pan with fixed base instead? (since you had some excess batter anyway). I don't really want to wrap my springform because of the condensation. Thanks and I can't wait to try your recipe!

Hello! I would like to make this today, but I don't have lemon juice ... but I do have cream of tartar (haha usually most people are the other way around). Can I substitute cream of tartar or is there something else I should use instead of lemon juice? Thank you :)))

HiI tried to make one last night but my egg whites didn't turn frothy and foamy, I did follow your instructions but mine just stayed watery for 15 mins of using my hand blender What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions please? Than you.

Hi HHH,Want to thank you for such a lovely recipe which works. Over the weekend, I followed your recipe and baked the cake in my air fryer (with some adjustments to the baking temperature). Chilled it and brought it to the office the following morning and my colleagues all said it was a nicely baked and yummy cake and declared this time my attempt at baking Jap cotton cheesecake was a success!